Great supernatural, horror, genre-bending read. Black girls going missing, evil in the forest, touching in sensitive issues? You can say I was hooked and thrilled the whole time.

I could not put this book down. It's fast paced with many twists and turns. I was engaged with the plot and characters throughout the book.

Liz returns to her hometown in rust belt PA to attend her best friend's wedding. Liz has long avoided Johnstown, where she never really fit in. When her god daughter disappears into the wood during the wedding, Liz joins a desperate search to find her. In doing so she uncovers the secrets of the town and the woods.

In the Author's Note Erin Adams details her experience growing up in Johnstown as well as Johnstown history such as the flood in the 1890's and the flight of 2,000 people of color after a proclamation that all black people who have lived in town for less than 7 years be expelled. Systemic racism is evident in the geography, educational system and social hierarchy of John

Kept me distracted during a rough week!
Up from 3.5 stars.
Thank you very much to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC!

This was a beautiful horror story. The first 70-80% of the book reads as a social thriller. The last part.... pure... perfect... horror. I really loved how this book ended. I ended up listening to the audiobook which a woman with a stunning voice reads. Spoilers ahead: I was worried this book would end the way most "horror" novels end, which is a real-life villain that has been portrayed as a real fictional monster the entire time. The opposite was true in this case. There is a real paranormal element to this book that you don't normally find. It's not a ghost or an overused entity. It's Anubis which I have never seen used as a villain before but I loved it. My first five-star book of the year. Excellent. Beautiful. It is expertly executed.

TW: Bullying, racism, child death, murder, depression, grieving, animal death, smoking, language, anxiety, sexual abuse/rape of child(ren)

*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:It’s watching. Liz Rocher is coming home . . . reluctantly. As a Black woman, Liz doesn’t exactly have fond memories of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a predominantly white town. But her best friend is getting married, so she braces herself for a weekend of awkward and passive-aggressive reunions. Liz has grown, though; she can handle whatever awaits her. But on the day of the wedding, somewhere between dancing and dessert, the bride’s daughter, Caroline, goes missing—and the only thing left behind is a piece of white fabric covered in blood. It's taking. As a frantic search begins, with the police combing the trees for Caroline, Liz is the only one who notices a pattern: a summer night. A missing girl. A party in the woods. She’s seen this before. Keisha Woodson, the only other Black girl in school, walked into the woods with a mysterious man and was later found with her chest cavity ripped open and her heart missing. Liz shudders at the thought that it could have been her, and now, with Caroline missing, it can’t be a coincidence. As Liz starts to dig through the town’s history, she uncovers a horrifying secret about the place she once called home. Children have been going missing in these woods for years. All of them Black. All of them girls. It's your turn. With the evil in the forest creeping closer, Liz knows what she must do: find Caroline, or be entirely consumed by the darkness.
Release Date: October 4th, 2022
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 336
Rating: ⭐️⭐️

What I Liked:
1. Wow that cover 😍
2. The plot sounds creepy
3. The perspective of the killer

What I Didn't Like:
1. I hated how confusing the different timelines were
2. Almost all the characters sound so similar
3. Liz picking fights with her "best friend" while her Godchild is missing
4. Unneeded romance

Overall Thoughts:
At first the writing was a little off putting to me. It felt choppy and unfocused but as I kept reading I didn't notice as much and the story started to flow.

Omg Liz taking this moment to school Mel on racism when Mel's daughter is missing overnight. Like she would need to hear about it right now. Then Liz gets mad at Mel because Mel gets defensive and leaves her in the woods.

I hate that the book makes out like hunting and field dressing a deer equals a serial killer. Some people like knowing where their food comes from or that's all they can afford. I hate that the author makes out like it's bad.

Mel is searching for her daughter and just acts like it's so normal. It was so odd. Even laughing about some stuff and talking like this is all okay.

Oh and then Liz picks another fight with Mel, blaming her dad for killing all the missing/murdered kids. Liz says she's out here trying find them and it's about so much more than Mel's daughter - ummmm Liz where the hell were you over the years that NOW it's so important? I just want Liz to tone it back some. Like dude help your friend find her missing child AND then try to find what happened to the missing girls.

Why is Liz included in the investigation? She's a sales person lol.

I thought that the author having all the missing girls being justified as murdered because of an animal attack or being abused by a family member was good. When white people disappear it's taken seriously but when black people go missing there's always some ridiculous excuse of why and it takes away from the true crime.

Another unneeded romance in a thriller. Like why?? Her best friends kid is missing and she decides she must sleep with this dude and that's even after she finds the crayon in his truck bed. She has complete suspension that he could be the kidnapper/murderer BUT has sex with him. Are all women just stupid in thrillers? They all seem to sleep with the person they think is the bad dude. After they sleep together he comes back with some lame excuse as to why it's there.

What's with the weird repeated sentance when Liz's mother made hot chocolate? It was word for word what she said before.

Ahhhhhh why do people always accuse the murderer when they are in the middle of nowhere?

Took 90% of the book before you get to the "horror" element of the story. Before that it's just a thriller. It's a basic thriller. A thriller that you've read 100 times before.

There are like 30 black girls killed in these woods. Why would people let their kids in the woods?? Also I don't know if I missed it but does Doug find all these girls wondering in the woods or does he find them outside of town?

I still didn't understand the point of Doug leading Liz on with including her on things.

Final Thoughts:
I feel like where the book left off I still had a lot of questions that were left unanswered. I'm mad that this book was promised as a horror thriller when it was just simply a thriller with questionable supernatural elements. I felt like I read through way too much basic thriller to get a pretty underwhelming ending. The person we meet at the ending that could give us an explanation doesn't even follow through with that and we leave off with questions of what was he. He says he is not a demon. He wants to take over a body that is strong but travels through hearts. What did Doug get from this bargain if the "being" isn't even strong enough to leave the woods to get his own girls?

Like I said I think this book started off interesting and I was interested in finding out why the girls were being murdered, but the ending wasn't enough to save a bland book.

Recommend For:
• Basic thriller books
• Strong female lead
• Strong black female character
• Thrillers with supernatural elements

wow!! this book was perfect to read during halloween month!!

a young black girl goes missing in the woods outside her white Rust Belt town. She's not the first and she wont be the last... its watching! Liz Rocher experienced something traumatic when she was young inside those woods, and as soon as she could, she left that town. But now she is being forced to go back because her best friend is getting married. But when the brides daughter, Caroline, goes missing... Liz is afraid her past is happening all over again. The woods are taking young black girls again.. but she wont let them have Caroline.


This book was sooo good !! Usually im not a huge horror fan, but Erin Adams did such an amazing job at making ti just creepy enough without being ridiculous. I loved it so much and cant wait for her to write more !! Such a great debut !

"Where are the dogs? The human chains? The sweeps? They don't fucking care," Mel takes a moment. "It's 'cause she's a little Black girl, right?"

It's been 15 years since another young Black girl went missing. She was found dead, her body mutilated. And, as our main character is soon to discover, young Black girls have been disappearing for decades.

"These aren't random girls. A shadow calling their names isn't a folktale. These girls were targeted."

This is a fine first novel; Adams knows how to craft a well paced, suspenseful thriller with great dialogue. I'm looking forward to her next novel.

"A man and his shadow live in the trees.
When they walk in time, both are pleased.
If one calls your name, or the other tempts you off the path,
You must ignore both, or face their wrath."

I loved every piece of this book. From the character development to the woods to the drama and heartache, I could not get enough of this book. I will read anything Erin Adams writes from now on.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for this eARC.

WOW. This book was so flipping good. It was the right amount of horror for me, the right amount of guessing and trying to figure it all out. It was all right. I loved it. Highly the recommend.

I often like to go into books without knowing much about them. Often this works out really well for me - but occasionally it backfires. In this case, it didn't work out for me and I decided to DNF. I knew this was about a Black woman returning to the Pennsylvania town where she grew up and learning about Black girls who have gone missing. I read lots of crime/thriller/suspense so thought this would be up my alley. I didn't realize there was a horror element and that isn't my thing so decided to stop reading this one. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

<I>First, a thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.</I>

I won't lie y'all - the first half of this book was a bit of a struggle for me. I really enjoyed the flashes to the past and reading from the "forest's" (as I called it then) POV, but when we were with Liz, our MC, it was just... not doing it for me.

It was only later in the book I came to realize the author was <i>purposefully</i> writing her to be withdrawn, distant, and blank. And once the floodgates opened... boy, did they open.

<i>If there’s one thing fear can do, it’s make a beast out of a shadow. It turns us all into monsters.</i>

This book is a commentary on the ugliness that hides within the shadows; how easy it is to pretend that there is nothing wrong, to continue to exist in an unjust world, because we are too afraid of confronting the demons that haunt a society, a place.

I understand how some felt the ending of the book was not satisfying, as we weren't really left with a clear understanding of the fate of one of the characters - but to me, that was entirely on purpose. Now we have confronted the darkness. But there is more work left to do once you face the dark - you must also work to ensure it doesn't encroach again, and to continue to face it head-on, no matter how uncomfortable that makes you feel.

I highly recommend to all who read to make it to the Author's Note at the end, which I also found to be both powerful and enlightening:

"But learning, naming, and confronting what makes us afraid and uncomfortable, no matter how ugly, is key to understanding and ensuring it never happens again. Sometimes anger comes with truths like this."

This book is an ode to missing and murdered BPOC women, who have too long and too often been forgotten, had their light snuffed out, or been pushed back down when they shone brightly. This was an extremely purposeful book - and it is not subtle in its critique of police when it comes to the cases of missing and murdered BPOC women.

Jackal by Erin E. Adams was such a creepy read! Lia is from a small town in Pennsylvania, She was one of the few black people in town and doesn’t have the best memories of growing up there. One thing that haunts her was her senior year, at a party near the woods, one of the other black girls from her class goes missing and was later found dead. Her heart has been ripped out of her body.
Present day, Liz is coming back for her best f friend’s wedding. Her best friend Mel, who is white, is marrying Garrett, who is black. They have a little daughter Caroline and Liz is her godmother. Liz adores Caroline. Unfortunately, the wedding is at a farm on the outskirts of the woods and Caroline goes missing. The sets in motion a horrifying tale that weaves together past and present. What follows is such a menacing and dreadful tale. You get the feeling that something is not right, but you’re not sure what. Little by little more and more stories of missing black girls are revealed. I don’t want to say too much more about the plot and give anything away.
I loved the character of Liz. She was a strong, black woman. I also liked the way the author explained the history of the town and how that had a lot to do with the story. The themes of race and class were very well detailed. I will definitely read more books by the author. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy this book. All opinions are my own.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance reader copy of Jackal by Erin E. Adams in exchange for an honest review. What an excellent thriller/mystery. Once I started reading this book, I could not put it down. It pulled me in and kepty interest peaked to the last page.

I don’t read horror. I don’t read fantasy. .I don’t read science fiction. I read good mysteries, redemptive stories, political novels, feminist literature . . Yet I just read one work that encapsulated all of this and more. . An overwhelming sad and realistic story plays out to illustrate the racism, sexism and poverty on a small community where young girls disappear, authorities dismiss them and their mothers grieve. Powerful and revealing, this one will stay in your head and eyes.

What a DEBUT!
It's very challenging to assign this novel a genre, as it encompasses several and does so very well.
I was hooked from the start and was invested.

Liz is a young African American woman who comes home, with doubts, for a friends' wedding. The day of the wedding comes, and her best friends' daughter, Caroline, goes missing. There was one clue, a bloody piece of fabric.

As the mystery unfolds, Liz realizes there is a pattern happening and over the years, several African American girls have gone missing in the same woods!
What starts out as a slow burn, quickly picks up and I loved it!

Thankful to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine. Great read!

Jackal by Erin E. Adams was a rollercoaster of thoughts and emotions for me. There were so many important messages about historical and structural racism that were conveyed, and I feel that the author did a good job of addressing those topics. The author also did a good job with incorporating some racial and cultural contexts that made the Black characters feel more real and relatable. The monster aspect of the story was interesting and the writing was giving me the creepy factors that I'd expect from a thriller or suspense story. However, the outcome of that aspect of the story threw me off and left me feeling confused more than anything because the story seemed to be going in a certain direction but detoured to something else and never returned to that path. Overall, it was an interesting story to read.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Jackal was a wild ride wrapped up in beautiful prose and fantastic commentary on racism throughout Appalachia. I loved the twists and turns it took, and how so many aspects of its horror were rooted in reality. This was the kind of thrilling horror I love most - tied to its landscape and its people in a haunting sweep.

“Jackal”, by Erin E. Adams, immediately, enthralled me because of its genre bending nature. There was a little of everything: horror, historical fiction, and mystery.

“Jackal” is an atmospheric novel that places the reader in the woods where we see shadowy figures and hear unknown voices. This setting is an integral part of the book that revolves around Liz.

Liz Rocher reluctantly returns to her hometown to attend her friend's wedding. Woods surround this town, in Pennsylvania,, which is a place of mystery and fear because Black young woman have gone missing for years.

The story also introduced serious issues, such as racism and poverty. Adams was successful at intertwining these topics into the story and avoiding informational dumps. The read learns of the history behind the small town and injustices experienced by the Black girls.

There are so many layers in this story. It kept me guessing until the end. “Jackal” was an exceptional #ownvoices debut novel. I am eagerly awaiting more books by this author. With that being said, this will not be the book for everyone. Please be mindful of that when you pick it up.

I love a book where the plot is built around a history. Jackal takes a real place and its real history and builds a striking work of social horror. The main character, Liz, returns to her hometown (also the author's hometown) for her best friend's wedding. The familiar setting brings back old memories of a night in the woods at a party when a classmate went missing. On the night of the wedding, the bride's own daughter goes missing in those same woods. Liz was the last one to see her and feels responsible. As Liz helps search for the girl, the past begins to catch up with her, as she learns that Black girls have been disappearing every year on the Summer solstice. Of course she can't find Caroline on her own but she has no idea who in town she can trust. The book was great about leaving breadcrumbs around various leads, and how it jumped back to give insight into the other missing girls over time I thought was very engaging. I loved reading the author's note at the end--it really sealed the book for me.

This is an odd title to review. The themes are very reminiscent of Ace of Spades and Razorblade Tears but it didn't quite hit the same spot as those titles. I do not find the abstract way racism was addressed here. I personally find hiding behind metaphors did it a disservice to talking about race and race motivated crimes. It made me not understand the motivations behind the crimes and "just because they're black" isn't convincing enough in a modern setting.

I found the characters compelling and the background/lore to be a cool concept (again, the abstractionism lost it for me). It has good discussions and themes. The writing if very easy to follow.

If you enjoyed Razorblade Tears or Ace of Spades, this is worth putting on your list.